Clinton Withdraws Nomination For Secretary of Veterans Affairs

By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM

Published: October 25, 1997

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24—
President Clinton today withdrew the nomination of Hershel Gober, the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to be the department's Secretary.

In confirmation hearings, the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs intended to explore circumstances surrounding the exoneration of Mr. Gober after he was accused of sexual misconduct in 1993, a Congressional staff member said tonight.

The White House released an exchange of letters between the President and Mr. Gober that did not mention the accusation. Mr. Gober said he preferred to remain as Deputy Secretary, and Mr. Clinton said he regretted Mr. Gober's decision not to pursue the nomination. Mr. Gober was state director of Veterans Affairs in Arkansas when Mr. Clinton was Governor.

A White House spokesman said tonight that the nomination was withdrawn after it became clear that the Senate committee would not approve Mr. Gober's confirmation.

Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is chairman of the committee, refused in an interview to discuss the accusation and said only that confirmation hearings would have been ''contentious.''

The White House said that Mr. Gober would remain as Deputy Secretary and that no nominee for Secretary had been decided on. The Secretary for the last five years, Jesse Brown, resigned on July 1.

A department spokesman, James H. Holley, said that in 1993 a woman who did not work for the department accused Mr. Gober of ''unwanted contact'' at a function in Baltimore. The accusation, Mr. Holley said, was filed with the department's general counsel, Mary Lou Keener, who turned it over to a career staff lawyer for investigation. The lawyer found the accusation to be meritless.

In January 1996, Mr. Gober and Ms. Keener were married.

After the accuser pursued her case, the department's regional counsel in Baltimore also found the accusation not justified.

Mr. Holley said, and a Congressional staff member confirmed, that the Senate committee was interested not in the accusation itself but in the potential conflict of interest that arose when Ms. Keener's office first exonerated Mr. Gober.

A major issue before the department involves charges of sexual harassment in veterans hospitals around the country.